Only Tyler (14 page)

Her rage intrigued him. Steve and Katie never fought they had intellectual arguments. They logically debated every aspect of a problem until they came up with a solution that suited them both. This morning’s debate must have been a humdinger. he’d never heard her use the word dickhead before, and certainly not in reference to him. “Did you fight over me?”

“Is that what you want to hear, Tyler?” Her eyes flashed. “That my fiancé and I argued over you?”

Yes, damn it. It meant his presence somehow hindered their relationship. It explained why Katie wanted him out of the house although God knew he was not leaving. Not if he could help it. “Did you?”

She gave him an angelic smile. “Actually, yes. I told Steve that you and I were once lovers and he didn’t take too kindly to the news.”

“Holy fuck! You told him? Please say you didn’t.”

“I’m sick of keeping secrets, Tyler. I refuse to do it anymore.

Especially when it affects a man I love very dearly.”

The desperation and distress in her eyes shook him. It had never occurred to him how difficult withholding the truth from Steve would be for her. “Katie,” he said quietly, “I’m sorry I lumped that burden on you. It wasn’t fair of me.”

“Well isn’t that just sugary sweet of you to say?” The vulnerability was gone. Sarcasm dripped from her voice. What had he expected?

That she’d accept his apology and it would make two years of living a lie okay for her? “Now that you’ve expressed your regret, everything can be hunky-dory all over again. Now I’m sure Steve will have no problem with us having hidden our relationship from him.”

Her words hit home, reminding him again that the secret he’d tried so hard to keep was out. Steve knew the facts.

How much longer could Tyler hide the rest of the story from him?

His jaw clenched, and his stomach burned. How much longer could he protect his friend from a reality he had no idea existed? How how did he react?

“He kissed me thoughtfully and told me he was thrilled by the news and hoped you’d been a good lover.” Then she snarled. “How the fuck do you think he reacted?”

Jesus, he hadn’t expected this. He’d planned to tell Steve himself well as much as he could anyway after he’d spoken to Katie. “He was upset.”

“You might say that.”

“You’re upset.”

“No, Tyler, I’m not upset. I am furious. With myself and with you. I should never, ever have kept it from Steve in the first place.”

Bile burned his throat. Katie was right.

She stalked around her room. “And you… you…” She glowered at him. “Fuck, you should never have come back. What are you doing here anyway? Besides trying to screw up my life?” She didn’t give him a chance to answer. “He won’t return. My fiancé won’t sleep in my bed until you’ve moved out.” She pivoted around and stuck a finger out at him. “You have to go. Today. I won’t compromise my marriage for you.”

Too late. It looked as though she already had. There was no way she could be this furious with him if the passion they’d once shared had abated. Yes, she hated the fact that she’d hurt Steve, but was that the real issue at play here?

“What’s bothering you, Katie? The fact that Steve’s upset by our history, or the fact that you are?”

Her shoulders stiffened. “You’re bothering me, Bonnard. You came back home, you threw our past in my face, and then you expected me to hide it from Steve. Well, I won’t stand for it anymore. Got it?”

“What won’t you stand for, Katie? Our past? Our secrets? Or the desire for me that you can’t suppress, not matter how hard you try?”

“Fuck you, Tyler.”

“That’s the real problem, isn’t it? That’s exactly what you want to do, and you can’t because of Steve. You want to fuck me. You want to tear that gown off, and rip off my clothes and fuck me for the next week.” Get a grip, Tyler. That’s what you want.

“I want you to leave.” Her voice bordered on hysterical.

“Do you?” He stepped closer, grabbed her arm and hauled her against him. “Do you really? Or do you want me to finish what we started in my hotel room?”

“Go!” Her heart galloped against his chest. Her expression was wild.

He shook his head violently, muttered an oath and crushed his lips to hers.

There was only one reason she was so worked up, and it wasn’t Steve Sommers, goddamn it. It was him. He was the one she wanted in her bed, and they both knew it.

She whimpered beneath his assault.

He tore his mouth away. “Tell me you don’t want this.”

She stared at him with glazed eyes, her lips puffy from his kiss.

“Damn it, Katie, tell me you don’t want this, and I’ll pack my bags faster than you can blink.”

She opened her mouth. “I…”

“Say it, Katie, and I will never interfere in your and Steve’s relationship again.”

“I…” Her voice broke.

“Katie…”

“Tyler…”

He kissed her again, brutally and she kissed him right back. Her tongue attacked his as he sought entrance to her mouth. She shook in his arms, and dug her nails into his shoulders. The scratches burned, but not as much as the need throbbing through him.

His heart beat a jagged rhythm as he shoved her gown off.

Holy crap. She was naked in his arms. He wanted to feel her breasts in his hands, but they were flattened against his chest. Her bare hips ground into his. Jesus, he didn’t think he’d ever been harder in his life.

She wrenched her lips from his. “Goddamn it, Tyler. I hate you.”

His dick hurt like blazes, and his balls screamed for liberation. “No, you don t, Katie. You love me. that’s why you’re so angry.”

Katie stared daggers at him. “You’re destroying my life.”

Although it almost killed him, he disentangled himself from her arms. His throat filled with sawdust, making speech difficult. “I’ll leave, Katie. If that’s what you want. I’ll pack my bags and go and never disturb you again.”

She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Her naked breasts heaved before him, provoking him.

“But…” He drew breath into airless lungs. “Before I do, I need to tell you my story and you need to hear it. For your sake and Steve’s.”

He needed to apologize too, for hurting her with his silence.

“I’m not interested.”

“Yes, my sweet, you are.”

“I refuse to listen to anything you have to say to me now.”

“Then I won’t say it now.” He edged back towards the door, staring the whole time at her beautiful, bare body. “Meet me here at five this afternoon.” His shoulder bumped the doorframe. “I’ll tell you everything then.”

Before she had the chance to tell him where to shove his story, he left. His tortured dick yelled its wrath, but he couldn’t stay. Couldn’t spend another second in the room while the woman he loved stood butt naked before him. If he did, he would not be able to honor his best friend by keeping his hands to himself.

Kate spent half of her day agonizing over Steve and the other half detesting Tyler.

A million times she stood to go to Steve’s office, and a million times she sat back down. He did not want to see her and she didn’t know what she’d say to him. didn’t know how to make it better between them. She couldn’t give him any of the reassurances she knew she should offer, because frankly, she wasn’t feeling quite so reassured herself.

What did Tyler have to tell her that was so important? Did she even giving a flying hoot?

Argh!

Of course she did. Hadn’t she noticed last night? Tyler was hurting.

He hid some painful secret, and yes, darn it, she did want to know about it. Did it have something to do with all the risks he’d been taking lately?

By four that afternoon she was a mess. She couldn’t stand to be with herself anymore. A run. She needed to get on the road and work off her frustration and her desperation and her confusion. Steve wouldn’t miss her if she left now. Hell, he wouldn’t even notice she was gone.

A quick check of her day planner revealed no emergencies. She grabbed her purse, asked Tina to reschedule the rest of her appointments and went home.

Her house however, did not offer the comfort she’d sought. It taunted her with Tyler’s promise to meet her back here. She shouldn’t want to hear his story. She wasn’t interested anymore. Was she?

His possessions, scattered through the rooms, mocked her bravado.

So what?

So, she’d told him to leave it didn’t mean she wanted him to go. Did it?

Yes, damn it. It did. He had to move out. Her engagement didn’t stand a chance if Tyler continued living with her.

She let out a growl borne of pure frustration and pulled on her running clothes. If she couldn’t stop her tortured thoughts with logic, she’d overcome them with exhaustion. She’d run away from Tyler’s story and from Steve’s disappointment and from her own bamboozled thoughts. Hell, she’d run so hard and so fast her thoughts wouldn’t be able to keep up with her. She’d run until she couldn’t run anymore.

Maybe, just maybe, by then her head would be a little clearer and she’d know what she’d have to do.

She shoved her hair into a haphazard ponytail, yanked open the front door and collided with a solid mass.

Tyler.

“Ouch! Damn it,” she cried as her nose smacked into Tyler’s chin.

Shit, what was he doing here now? She hadn’t even heard his bike.

“You okay, my sweet?” Tyler rubbed his chin.

“No,” she wasn’t okay. She was all screwed up, and it was his fault.

“Don’t call me that,” she snapped and took a step backward. They were too close.

Every time he breathed, his shirt scraped against her breasts, taunting them mercilessly.

“What? My sweet?” Tyler asked, his voice dangerously low. “That’s what you are. The sweetest thing that ever happened to me.” He stepped forward and closed the space between them.

Uh-uh. No way. Once today was enough. She stepped back. “I am your best friend’s fiancé.”

A muscle jumped in his jaw. “The relationship’s a farce. You don’t love him.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, mate.”

Tyler’s smile challenged her protest. “Do you dream about him at night?”

“What?” She swallowed.

“Does he make you burn for his touch?”

“I…” Shit!

“Do his lips make you moan the way mine do?” His voice was gruff.

Her eyes fixed on his mouth. “Tyler, please…” Liquid heat gathered between her legs.

His breathing deepened. “Does the feel of his hand on your breasts make your nipples bead?”

Her breasts tightened painfully beneath his hot gaze. “Shut up, Bonnard.”

“Does his touch make you hot and wet” he watched her shift in discomfort, “like mine does?”

She couldn’t speak. The words jammed in her throat. Oxygen seemed sparse, unavailable.

“Does it, sweet Katie?”

“I mean it, shut up,” she growled.

“Does it, Katie?”

“Fuck you, Tyler.”

“Katie…”

“No!” The word was wrenched from her gut.

Tyler muttered something nonsensical seconds before he melded his mouth to hers. The action was primal, a man responding on instinct.

This was no slow, sensual exploration of tenderness. This was the behavior of a male marking his territory, staking his claim. Tyler branded her, made her his and allowed no space for argument.

Not that Kate could think of a single plausible argument at that point. If Tyler had hit her over her head with a wooden club, caveman-style, she would have been less stunned. This way he’d effectively shut her up. Effectively silenced any possible objections. How could she talk when her mouth was being treated to the most salacious, most sizzling-hot kiss she’d ever experienced?

Her brain short-circuited. Her body overheated.

No one else could make Kate feel like this. Ever.

Only Tyler.

She whimpered as his tongue ignited flames. Groaned as he pulled her close.

His heart pounded beneath the warm density of his muscle. Time stood still.

The world stopped turning. Tyler drew her closer and for the second time that day she found herself molded to his erection.

Yes, she was branded. She was his. She had been for years. Even though she was with Steve now, she could not deny Tyler was the one who made her body yell out for more.

Horror washed over her. “Steve!”

She pulled away. “Tyler, no. Stop. Please.”

His face was dazed, his lips swollen. Desire darkened his eyes.

“Let me go.” She pushed against his chest, wanting nothing more than to stay in his arms forever. “Please.”

“Katie…”

“Ty.” She could hear the longing in her own voice. “I can’t do this.”

Yes, she could. Not doing it was killing her. Her body cried out in rage at the injustice of being wrenched away from him. “Steve!” Her chest heaved.

“You don’t love him.” Tyler’s voice was husky, his eyes unfocused.

“I’m marrying him.” She pulled Tyler’s hands from her hips and took a step back. Her body shuddered with repressed hunger while her mind berated her actions.

How could she betray Steve like this? What kind of a heartless bitch was she?

“I… I’ve got to go.” She stumbled past Tyler, out of the house into the glaring daylight. Even the sun seemed to beat down on her accusingly.

“You’re running away again?”

“I have to get out of here before this spirals out of control, before…” She couldn’t finish. If she didn’t get the hell away from him she’d do something stupid. Something Steve would never forgive her for.

Her resolve threatened to disintegrate. How could she walk away from the one man she wanted more than anything she’d ever wanted in her whole life?

She twisted around and fled.

Katie sprinted to the corner in record-breaking time. Her footsteps echoed in her ears, reverberating up her back as her runners hit the footpath. Her lungs burned from lack of air, and her calf muscles clenched in an unexpected spasm, punishing her for neglecting to warm up. She didn’t care. Maintaining her momentum, she took a sharp left, galloped down three blocks and darted across the road and onto the cliff-side path.

A gust of wind whipped the salt of the sea air across her face, stinging her nostrils. She inhaled sharply, and the salt burned through her nose and into her eyes, making them water. She sniffed, wiped ineffectively at her eyes and kept moving. Watching the path so as not to trip, she forced one leg in front of the other, desperately trying to outrun her actions, herself and her hunger for Tyler.